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Premier @Kathleen_Wynne announces up to $1 Billion investment for light rail transit and GO service in #HamOnt. #LRT
 
News Release
Ontario Investing Up to $1 Billion for Light Rail Transit in Hamilton

May 26, 2015

New LRT Will Help Drive Economic Growth and Improve Quality of Life

Ontario will provide up to $1 billion to build a new light rail transit (LRT) line in Hamilton as part of the largest infrastructure investment in Ontario's history.

Premier Kathleen Wynne announced the funding today while in Hamilton. The province will cover 100 per cent of the capital costs of building the LRT, which will help grow the economy, reduce travel times and connect people to jobs and to other transit systems.

New, modern light rail vehicles on tracks separated from regular traffic will offer speedy service from McMaster University through downtown Hamilton to Queenston Circle. The LRT will connect directly to the new West Harbour GO Station, which is now under construction, and protect for a future, high-order pedestrian connection to the Hamilton Centre GO Station. The LRT will ultimately extend to Eastgate Square. Procurement for the LRT will start in 2017, with construction starting in 2019.

In the 2015 Budget, the government committed to investing in rapid transit in Hamilton as part of the Moving Ontario Forward plan. Through this plan, Ontario will invest $31.5 billion over 10 years in public transit, transportation and other priority infrastructure projects across the province. The Hamilton LRT project aligns with the government's priority of investing in rapid transit projects that will connect to GO Transit and other transit systems across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).

The Premier also announced an additional expansion of transit service in Hamilton. The province will extend GO rail service on the Lakeshore West line from the West Harbour GO Station at James Street North to a new GO station at Centennial Parkway in eastern Hamilton. Construction is expected to begin in 2017, with completion in 2019.

Investing in priority transit infrastructure is part of the government's plan to build Ontario up. The four-part plan includes investing in people's talents and skills, making the largest investment in public infrastructure in Ontario's history, creating a dynamic, innovative environment where business thrives, and building a secure retirement savings plan.


QUICK FACTS

Construction is currently underway to build the new West Harbour GO Station to be open in time for the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games.

To ensure that every region in the province benefits fairly from Moving Ontario Forward, the government is allocating dedicated funds to the GTHA and outside the GTHA based on their relative shares of the population using census data from Statistics Canada.

The Moving Ontario Forward plan is expected to support more than 20,000 jobs per year, on average, in construction and related industries over the next 10 years.

Over the next 10 years, weekly trips across the GO rail network will grow from about 1,500 trips to nearly 6,000. The government is working with its agency Metrolinx to bring Regional Express Rail service to the GO rail network.
 
How would a high order pedestrian connection to the Hamilton Centre Go Station work?
 
Adjei said:
How would a high order pedestrian connection to the Hamilton Centre Go Station work?
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This is interesting. It's only a short 250-300 meter walk between LRT (if on King Street) and the entrance to Hamilton GO, at the nearest point, and could easily be made a covered walkway, like a covered sidewalk. Or the parking lots on Hughson are development opportunities and may also provide a potential indoor route. There's a mini-condo-boom occuring just a couple blocks away, would naturally spread to this area now that the LRT is official. Also, the 'moat' space surrounding McMaster University Downtown Centre on Hughson, could be enhanced into a McMaster expansion that also includes an indoor walkway that connects southwards to new walkways going through what's currently Hughson surface parking lots.

Crossing streets can also be made covered walkways, with a simple but nice-looking "roof" over the intersections (perhaps artsy). So that there's a weather-protected walk all the way to Hunter GO entrance. The 250-300 meter walk isn't arduous especially if it's partially indoors and crossings are overhead-protected.

I imagine it's covered only (and maybe partially indoors, pending gradual development), not indoors. I'd be surprised if it was a totally indoors connection -- Hamilton isn't yet ready for its first "PATH" style network -- but maybe within ten or twenty years of downtown expansion it is warranted in this area (indoor walk between Jackson Square all the way (through connecting new condos/office buildings) to Hamilton Downtown GO)
 
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New challenge. Let's see it survive a change of mayor and a change of provincial government. And of course, let's not forget where a small percentage of the money comes from (sale of Hydro One, which many of us oppose, and it could still potentially fall through). Let's hope there's a way to make Mountain residents happy too (e.g. bus improvements) as it could torpedo the next election.

At least the 2017 procurement, means some contracts will be signed, and it will be politically difficult to reverse due to cancellation fees. We'd have to be totally Scarborough to screw it up -- and Hamilton, city council challenged, isn't as dysfunctional as Scarborough over transit. (And do I need to mention the Rob Ford era at all? Compared to that, Hamilton's city council circus is a Beethoven overture in comparison. Despite Hamilton wavering and dissent, we've been far more consistently pro-LRT on average, for a full ten years, non-stop. How's that for a record, despite all the Hamilton LRT bashing elsewhere?)

It's good they're protecting for an eventual extension to Eastgate Square. We're getting an LRT started with dates finally announced, and that's something.
 
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Great day for Hamilton, and hat's off to the local activists led by Ryan McGreal and the Light Rail Initiative who hounded anti-LRT politicians (including card carrying Liberals like former Mayor Bratina) and fought widespread lies and misinformation.
 
interchange42 said:
New, modern light rail vehicles on tracks separated from regular traffic will offer speedy service from McMaster University through downtown Hamilton to Queenston Circle. The LRT will connect directly to the new West Harbour GO Station, which is now under construction, and protect for a future, high-order pedestrian connection to the Hamilton Centre GO Station.
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Does this mean they're building a spur to the West Harbour GO Station? My Hamilton geography is a little fuzzy, but isn't that pretty far off the main route?
 
smably said:
Does this mean they're building a spur to the West Harbour GO Station? My Hamilton geography is a little fuzzy, but isn't that pretty far off the main route?
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Yes, the line has a spur that goes up to West Harbour (James Street) GO, not the current Hunter Street station. The spur from King/James going north to the West Harbour GO station is about 1 kilometer.
 
mjl08 said:
Yes, the line has a spur that goes up to West Harbour (James Street) GO, not the current Hunter Street station. The spur from King/James going north to the West Harbour GO station is about 1 kilometer.
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I'm wondering how this will work. If you're travelling east-west across the city, will you be diverted all the way to West Harbour GO and back? Or would it be a transfer? I expect a diversion to West Harbour would add a significant delay to cross-town travel.

I'm sure we'll get details soon though.
 
vic said:
I'm wondering how this will work. If you're travelling east-west across the city, will you be diverted all the way to West Harbour GO and back? Or would it be a transfer? I expect a diversion to West Harbour would add a significant delay to cross-town travel.

I'm sure we'll get details soon though.
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There's lots of options. Given how this appears to be a change on the fly, I expect they probably have not worked out any details at all of how the actual service will run, and probably won't for a few years until the opening is actually in sight. This does allow the line to be truncated or short-turned in emergencies or during construction. I never saw that issue addressed anywhere before.
 
The 2017 start date is great news to hear. I am no longer as pessimistic about this project being built, because if they decided to start this in 2018 it would have been a disaster in the making. Although hopefully by 2017 they mean early to mid-2017 and not late 2017. Let's not forget the Eglinton West disaster that happened even with shovels in the ground.

However, I do think that the Confederation GO construction will go ahead seamlessly.
 
Amare said:
The 2017 start date is great news to hear. I am no longer as pessimistic about this project being built, because if they decided to start this in 2018 it would have been a disaster in the making. Although hopefully by 2017 they mean early to mid-2017 and not late 2017. Let's not forget the Eglinton West disaster that happened even with shovels in the ground.

However, I do think that the Confederation GO construction will go ahead seamlessly.
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With procurement in 2017 and construction slated to start in 2018, that should hopefully mean that RFPs are issued in mid-to-late 2017, which should make cancelling the line a lot more difficult and unpalatable. Especially in this day and age. The optics have changed considerably since the gas plant scandal.
 
Both LRT & new GO station are good news.

I thought that the LRT wouldn't connect to the new GO station though. Was the route modified? It says "The LRT will connect directly to the new West Harbour GO Station, which is now under construction". If so great, you can have all day two way GO service connected with the LRT.
 
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